This is Russia’s imperialist thinking laid bare: a belief in greatness that demands sacrifice, a messianic purpose untethered from reason and a chilling comfort with violence. No war crime is too heinous, no bomb too big for a system that knows nothing but oppression and subjugation. Many in Russia are even bizarrely convinced they’re liberating Ukraine by invading it.
But let’s not mistake this vox populi to mean that Moscow will resort to nuclear escalation. Doomsday weapons serve Moscow better as tools of blackmail than battlefield instruments. And its reliance on China, which has firmly opposed nuclear escalation, acts as a major restraint in this regard.
However, the Kremlin’s threats are still dangerous, not only for their immediate implications but for the precedent they set. Allowing Russia to intimidate the free world into limiting support, or even abandoning Ukraine, guarantees a future where every rogue regime views nuclear development as ultimate leverage — and that is a path that leads to chaos.
That is why strength is the answer. Not reactive, naive or impulsive strength, rather a clear-eyed resolve that understands the depth of Russia’s motives. Putin may have given the order to invade, but this war isn’t about just one man.
To that point, in his latest remarks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined a pragmatic yet ambitious plan to end the “hot stage of the war.” The cease-fire deal would include NATO membership for the parts of Ukraine currently under Kyiv’s control, with the alliance’s invitation recognizing the country’s 1991 borders. Zelenskyy emphasized maintaining the legal and moral claim to all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, as the country’s constitution prohibits ceding land without the consent of its people.
Dismissing such a proposal as unrealistic is easy, but the truth is that failing to stand up for Ukraine would make the world a far more dangerous place. Russia chose war — we didn’t. And we’ve seen the consequences of not confronting Moscow decisively. The world has witnessed the horrors of Russian occupation. And if a cease-fire scenario comes to pass, we must ensure that those enduring this occupation are neither abandoned nor forgotten.
The aggressor must lose — not just for Ukraine’s survival but to end Russia’s imperial ambitions. As Zelenskyy’s plan makes clear, and as we should have learned by now, the free world’s duty isn’t merely to stop the bloodshed but to secure a just and lasting peace. Anything less is an open invitation to an even larger war.
